The last ten percent of capacity costs more than the first ninety

Utilisation targets look like efficiency and behave like debt, and the arithmetic of queues explains why the same team suddenly quotes six weeks instead of two.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for The last ten percent of capacity costs more than the first ninety

A workshop, a design studio, a claims team, an installation crew: the pattern repeats. Nobody started working more slowly. Headcount didn’t fall. The mix didn’t change much. And yet the lead time quoted to customers went from two weeks to six over a couple of quarters, and the only visible change in the numbers was that utilisation climbed from the low eighties into the mid nineties: which, on the face of it, looks like good news. This is not a discipline problem or a motivation problem. It is arithmetic. And…

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